


Different

by TheEmu



Series: Mike and Eleven's Relationship [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 15:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8997073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEmu/pseuds/TheEmu
Summary: They were the perfect couple. Mike and El. El and Mike. They were the most functional two people in the world. They did everything together. They were not like the others. Their one weakness, however, was also their greatest strength. They were inseparable.





	

They were the perfect couple. Mike and El. El and Mike. They were the most functional two people in the world. They did everything together. They were not like the others. Their one weakness, however, was also their greatest strength. They were inseparable. Mike without El was nothing, and El without Mike was nothing. They wholly depended on one another. At first after El’s disappearance, Mike was hopeful. He tried his hardest to desperately clench onto his sanity every day for weeks. Weeks which turned into months. After January, he realized how hopeless he and his situation was. He tried anything to bring her back, but nothing worked. After nearly a year, he had tried moving on, but his attempts failed miserably. Lucas and Dustin both have gone into multiple relationships, lasting anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. But Mike, he was a complete wreck. Some days he simply did not go to school, or wouldn’t return home for hours. Nobody knew where he went or what he was doing, but one day he brought El back with him. People tried asking questions, but neither of the two would answer anything.

  
As soon as El returned, lightness also returned to the world. Mike started talking to his friends again, he stopped ignoring his parents, he stopped failing his classes. At first, Mike’s parents were wary about Mike and El being so close. They didn’t want them to do anything they would later regret, however after a few days they realized how perfect the two of them were for each other, and how responsible they were. Joyce Byers, as El’s adoptive mother, felt the same way.

  
After another month or so was when they truly became the “perfect couple.” El started going to school, and every day afterwards she would bike home with Mike to do homework and hang out. Together, they completed their homework at an incredible speed. El was better at math, and Mike was better at science, so they worked together to finish their homework in just a few minutes on most days. After they finished, they usually went downtown to get something to eat, go see a movie, or just chill at one of their houses.

  
Most nights, they had sleepovers, which the parents were most worried about at first. Most of the time, they didn’t even seem like lovers, but just very good friends. Or even two halves of the same person. Neither of them were like most people. Mike and El never went on dates, their entire lives were dates to them. They didn’t kiss often, usually only when they’re alone and it’s some kind of special event. While each of them may or may not have thought about sex individually, they never really concerned themselves with it or talked about it. It wasn’t important to them.

  
Dustin was slightly jealous of Mike and El’s relationship. He wasn’t into El or anything, but he wished he could have that kind of relationship with someone. He was talking with Lucas about it, and Lucas said, “I don’t know man, they’re different from us, from everyone. I think either of us would get super bored with such a good relationship. And plus, their entire relationship was built on their history. I mean she saved his fucking life! Multiple times. And then when you and I rejected her, he offered her a home. That’s a rare thing that I doubt either of us would ever have.”

  
“You’re right,” is all Dustin said. Because he was right, and they both knew it. It was stupid to be jealous of it, because it’s not all good. They went through a lot to get to where they are today, and neither Dustin nor Lucas would ever want to go through what Mike did. They both saw him for the year she was gone. He probably would’ve killed himself, had he needed to go on much longer without El.

 

Mike and El were known for going off and disappearing for a day or two, and nobody knew where they went, yet nobody worried about them. They were together, and nothing bad ever happened when they were together. They could accomplish or overcome anything. On this particular occasion, it was the first day of summer break, minutes after school had let out. Mike and El had prepared to go on a little adventure, in advance. Without anybody noticing, Mike stored up some supplies, and borrowed his parents’ tent. El was able to sneak out a couple sleeping bags and a little food from the Byers’. They rode their bikes to the forest, where they continued on until they found a nice spot by a lake.

  
Upon arrival, they both looked at each other and smiled. They both knew this was the spot. They unpacked the few supplies they brought, and just sat by the water.

  
“It’s been a while since we’ve really talked, just you and me,” Mike started.

  
“Yes,” El confirms, nodding.

  
“We work well together, don’t you think? I mean like…” Mike pauses. “I mean us doing things together has been far more productive and fun than I’ve ever been by myself.”

  
El simply nods, and takes in a long breath of the nice summer air by the lake they sat by.

  
“Sometimes I think about what I would’ve done if you hadn’t’ve come back. Like where I would be now,” Mike calmly says.

  
“You would be fine,” El reassures him.

  
“Would I really be? I mean, if it weren’t for Dustin, Lucas, and Will, I probably would’ve killed myself without you here,” Mike starts sobbing.

  
El wraps her arm around his back and he cries into her shoulder. El tears up a little.

  
“I just…” Mike starts, “I just….love…love you so much,” he finishes between tears. He lifts his head back up to look into her slightly wettened eyes.

  
“I love you too, Mike,” she says, giving him a couple quick pats on the back. She leans forward, and kisses him, before they both turn to look at the quickly falling sun. “I told you a little about what happened to me before you found me, but I never really told you everything.”

  
Mike stared at her with comforting eyes.

  
“After I banished the monster, I spent a very long time running and hiding so that it wouldn’t find me. I couldn’t come back to you until I knew it was gone, because I couldn’t let it hurt you, or any of your—my friends,” she admitted. Mike pulled her in for an embrace, and their connected shadows extended long behind them because of the falling sun in front of them. “I wanted to come back, I really did. I wanted so much to come back. Sometimes in the woods I would hear you calling for me from this world, and it hurt not being able to let you know I was there.”

  
“You could’ve just left a message or something,” Mike says softly.

  
“I knew you would come for me for sure, then,” El said, and they both started chuckling through some tears.

  
After about half an hour of silence, Mike suggests that they should really get to setting up the tent before it’s too dark, and she silently agrees. By the time the tent’s up, it’s truly dark. El turns on her flashlight, and they make their way into the tent.

  
“This sleeping bag has a faulty zipper,” El realizes.

  
Mike grins, “You won’t mind sharing, will you?” and El smirks. “You planned this, didn’t you?” Mike says in a jokingly accusational way.

  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Michael Wheeler,” El jests. “Oh well, it’ll be warmer if we share anyway.”

  
“Fine by me,” Mike smiles.

  
El unzipped the other sleeping bag all the way, and combined the two into one. She adjusted the pillows and she slipped into the sleeping bag. Mike zipped up the tent and slipped into the sleeping bag as well. They faced each other, and El wrapped her arms tight around Mike, and he did the same. Almost every night they spend the night together, but tonight it was different. They were closer, their legs, chests, and foreheads touching. Usually they just sleep nearby, but this time they were together. Truly together. It was much needed physical contact after their little talk earlier. It was very comforting.

  
No more than 10 minutes later did El fall asleep in Mike’s arms, and as numb as his arm felt from her putting her weight on it, he wouldn’t trade this moment for any other. Mike whispers, “My beautiful Eleven,” into her ear before dozing off to sleep himself.

 

The next morning El woke in Mike’s continuing embrace, and smiled wider than ever. She realized she must be killing his arm, and tried to get off of it, but it woke him.  
“Morning, beautiful!” he said, yawning and arms stretching, with his eyes narrow from the lightness of the sun shining through their tent.

  
She blushes at the unexpected compliment.

  
“Well I must say, that was one of the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a while,” he said smiling. “But I do think this little trip has served its purpose. We got our little talk in.”

  
“We should do it again soon, but take our friends with us,” she suggested.

  
“Yeah, definitely”

  
The two packed up their things, took the tent down, and climbed up a little hill overlooking the lake.

  
“We sure picked a nice place to camp at, El,” Mike said, and she had nothing more to add, so she simply nodded.

  
The two, smiling and quite visibly very happy, turned around and rode back into town on their bikes. They rode to the Byers’ and Will immediately noticed how remarkably happy they looked.

  
“What’s up with you two?” he asked with a laugh.

  
The two looked at each other, and then to Will. “Camping was fun,” El said.

  
“Oh, so you guys went camping then?” Will asked, and they nodded.

  
“Yeah, and we’re thinking about going next week again with the guys, sound fun?” Mike asked.

  
“We uhm…might need some more sleeping bags though…” El said, carefully.

  
“Oh yeah…I think we only have two and one’s broken…wait…,” Will said, and raised his eyebrows, realizing that they probably shared a sleeping bag. It didn’t really surprise him though, so he decided not to question it, and changed the subject. “So it was fun, huh?”

  
“Yeah, the sun looks really pretty reflecting off of this lake we camped by.” El said. “We just talked for a bit before bed. It was nice, you want to come with us next week?”

  
“Sure, sounds great.” Will replied.

  
“I should probably get going soon,” Mike said, glancing at his watch.

  
“You could stay here if you want. Or I could go home with you…” El started, but stopped when Mike opened his mouth.

  
He was about to suggest she spends some time with her brother, but he couldn’t say no to her beautiful, brown, puppydog eyes. “Alright,” he ends up saying. Wow, she affected him way too much. He could never say no to her, and never before had he considered that maybe that they loved each other a little too much for their own good.  
The two rode over to Mike’s house and Mike’s mother was surprisingly glad to see him.

  
“Hey, mom,” Mike said, and El greeted her as well with a smile. Mike put away the rest of the camping supplies and they headed up to Mike’s room. Mike fell backwards onto his bed. “Ah, it sure will be nice to sleep in bed tonight. Don’t get me wrong, last night was like the best night ever, but the lack of mattress really messed up my back,” Mike said with a little laugh.

  
El giggled too. “Yeah,” she said, nodding slowly.

  
“Hmm, what should we do now?” Mike asked her, and tilted his head slightly.

  
El stared blankly at him in thought for a few seconds before her face lit up and she lifted a finger. “We could go see a movie?” she asked.

  
“Yeah, sounds fun!” Mike said. “Hmm, you probably should’ve changed back at your house, I mean we’ve been in these clothes since yesterday morning.” He looked through his drawer for a second. “Here’s a shirt,” he handed her one of his long sleeve blue shirts.

  
“Thanks,” she said, walking out to go change. He quickly changed himself while she was gone.

  
The two made their way downstairs and contemplated getting something to eat before they left, because they never had dinner last night, but ended up deciding to get something before heading to the movies.

  
They went to this breakfast place, and Dustin and Lucas, who were already there, saw them. “Hey guys!” Dustin said, as they approached their table.

  
“Oh, hi Dustin, Lucas,” Mike said, “Didn’t expect to see you two here,”

  
“We didn’t expect to see you two here either,” Lucas said with a chuckle, and Mike nodded to that.

  
“We were about to go see Ferris Bueller's Day Off, wanna come?” Mike offered.

  
“Oh, hah, we were going to see that anyway. We asked Will and he didn’t want to come, we were gonna ask you guys but we couldn’t find you. Where did you guys sneak off to anyway?” Lucas asked.

  
“Camping. It was fun,” El said, nodding.

  
“We’re going again next week, you two wanna come? Will already said he’d go,” Mike asked them.

  
Dustin nods to Lucas, and Lucas says, “Yeah, sounds great.”

  
“We better get to the theater quick, the movie’s starting in ten!” Dustin says, clearly worried about missing the movie. They all get up and go to the theater.

  
Lucas kept glancing over at Mike and El, who were focused on watching the movie. Dustin was trying to watch it too, but Lucas kept telling him to look at Mike and El. “When you go to the movies with your girlfriend, don’t you guys spend most of it focused on each other, and not the actual movie?” Lucas whispers to Dustin.

  
“I guess so, yeah,” Dustin responds, equally as quiet. They looked at the two of them for a few more seconds before shrugging and watching the movie.

  
After the movie, Dustin and Lucas walked in the direction towards their houses, and Mike and El headed to the Wheelers’.

  
Mike and El went up to Mike’s room. “You know, we’re different from most people,” he said slowly. She nodded thoughtfully. Mike didn’t really know what else to say. He wasn’t sure why he even said that to begin with.

  
“I’m glad we’re not like most people,” El said softly, looking towards Mike, who was glancing downwards, before looking up to meet her eyes. “Most people are boring.”  
That made Mike smile a bit and he let out a small chuckle. She quickly gave him a small peck on the forehead and returned back to her original position, and smiled as well. “Do you think most people are as happy as we are? With everything?”

  
She shook her head, and said “But we weren’t always happy. We both went through more than most people do.”

  
She was right. She was always right. And that was just one of the reasons he loved her.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on making a sequel to this, that will be Mature rated.


End file.
